Surf Simply Reunion

Lauren and Michael, my friends from Surf Simply who live in Orange County, met up with me and Tammy at San Onofre. It was Lauren's first time back in the cool water (64° per my surfboard thermometer) since Costa Rica (in the 80s, sooo nice). The sun was warm though so we weren't cold in our 3/2s, at least until the wind came up near the end of the session.

There was a strong southward sideshore current and after I caught a couple of meh waves on the inside, I lost sight of the others for quite a while. When I made it out through the mid-period head-high surf, I was much closer to the janitors sweeping Dog Patch than when I'd started. After paddling back north a while to get back to Old Man's, I finally spotted Lauren. She hadn't seen any of our crew since she got to the lineup.

The outside set waves were bigger but very soft and hard to get into on my 6'2" unless I caught them already broken. One of those turned out to be a pretty fun right, and I made it to the face for a carve or two before it flattened out too much for my little board. I jumped on a couple more waves for short rides to get close to the beach, looking for Michael and Tammy. Lauren was on a longer fish and worked a single wave all the way in. We rode a few more on the inside and got out, finding our friends on the beach as we walked north.

Michael and Lauren

Before we pointed the car toward home, Tammy and I drove one exit in the other direction for second breakfast at Pipes in San Clemente, which has to be one of the most environmentally-unconscious restaurants targeting surfers. I felt guilty eating oatmeal from a styrofoam cup with a plastic spoon, even if it did really hit the spot after all that splashing about in the ocean. I should probably go back to talk to them about becoming an Ocean Friendly Restaurant, or at least more ocean-friendly.

Nice artwork at Pipes anyway